As New York returned to the street to pedestrians in a few hours

In 2002, when 90% of the New York streets were occupied by cars, the city decided to return this public space to pedestrians in a few hours. At dawn, a part team used various boards and ink to paint parking lots and spaces then occupied by cars-among them a maga-construction site in Brooklyn, which was used as informal parking by vehicles.

The story was told to the sustainable planet by Janette Sadik-Khan, current Secretary of State for transport of American city and responsible for the idea, even before he was appointed to the current post. According to her, 90% of the population was dissatisfied with the large amount of cars on the road â€" oddly enough, the same percentage of double-parked cars.

Despite bold and temporary, this solution ended up go getting. Initially, the Board decided that the streets would be returned to vehicles if necessary. However, the response of the majority of the population was so positive that the city didn't have the guts to go back â€" and such informal parking of Brooklyn is today a convivial community square.

With the change, people began to feel more ownership of the streets, according to Janette Sadik-Khan, and became more receptive to identical projects. Ten years later, New York has hundreds of miles of bike paths, lanes for buses and reduced the speed limit of vehicles in 15 km/h.

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